Harmonious Bosch
LightNews LightNews
banner
ljon.bsky.social
Harmonious Bosch
@ljon.bsky.social
340 followers 1.1K following 770 posts
This didn't happen in Ronan Collins' day.

Also at https://mastodon.social/@loughlin sometimes.
Posts Replies Media Videos
ljon.bsky.social
Screenshot of the headline of a Department of Justice press release from 11th December 2025 which reads "Minister Jim O’Callaghan secures Government approval to publish legislation to enable Gardaí use biometric recognition technologies. Minister Jim O’Callaghan secures Government approval to publish legislation to enable Gardaí use biometric recognition technologies."
January 30, 2026 at 5:09 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Hmmm.
Screenshot of an Irish Times headline which reads "Big thinking needed as the golden age of Irish tech nears its end". The subhead reads "IDA Ireland must land a big AI-related investment to keep foreign direct investment in a healthy state" Screenshot of a Wall Street Journal headline which reads "These Billion-Dollar AI Startups Have No Products, No Revenue and Eager Investors"
January 28, 2026 at 3:40 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Putting Darragh O'Brien in sole charge of this with no democratic oversight couldn't possibly have any poor outcomes, could it?

www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
Screenshot of an Irish Times headline which reads "Proposed law would enable Minister to decide on process relating to State gas reserve"
January 21, 2026 at 10:26 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Ominous tidings in the gov.ie source code.
A screenshot of two HTML comments The first reads "taoiseach" and the second reads "end of taoiseach".
January 18, 2026 at 4:03 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Somehow I don't think fast-tracking a new law is going to cut it.

(The Indo headline is from today, the Irish Times headline is from yesterday.)
A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Independent, 13th January 2026 which reads "Government fast-tracks law to fine tech giants for AI abuse" Screenshot of a headline from the Irish Times, 12th January 2026, which reads "Data Protection Commission owed more than €4 billion in fines"
January 13, 2026 at 11:04 AM
ljon.bsky.social
TikTok's lobbyists could save everyone involved a lot of time by simply pasting 'WE DON'T LIKE REGULATION' into a document several thousand times and sending that to as many ministers as they can think of.

archive.ph/UvBwK
Screenshot of text from linked article in the Business Post which reads "A document of recommendations presented to Smyth at the meeting, outlined TikTok’s view that data protection authorities around Europe are taking “inconsistent and in some cases absolutist positions regarding data transfers”."
January 12, 2026 at 8:47 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Oh. I see.
A picture of Patrick O'Donovan looking nonplussed.
January 10, 2026 at 9:01 AM
ljon.bsky.social
GDPR Article 5(b):

"Personal data shall be ... collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes."

The Minister for Aggrieved Shouting:

extra.ie/2026/01/03/n...
A screenshot of a direct quote from Patrick O'Donovan in the linked article, which reads "I can see how some people, to be quite honest about it no matter what we do to try and protect children online, will use it, will use any sort of mechanism, to say that a data set shouldn’t be used for a ­purpose other than for which the data set is collected."
January 3, 2026 at 5:12 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Willie O'Dea remains undefeated in the 'politicians ill-advisedly pointing guns at cameras' stakes.
Infamous picture of Willie O'Dea pointing a pistol straight into the lens of a camera.
December 31, 2025 at 6:39 PM
ljon.bsky.social
A screenshot of the German and English text of the poem Die Lösung by Bertolt Brecht. The German text reads "Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni / Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbands / In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen / Auf denen zu lesen war, daß das Volk / Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe / Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit /zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da / Nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung / Löste das Volk auf und / Wählte ein anderes?" The English text reads "After the uprising of the 17th of June / The Secretary of the Writers' Union / Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee / Which stated that the people / Had squandered the confidence of the government / And could only win it back / By redoubled work. Would it not in that case / Be simpler for the government / To dissolve the people / And elect another?"
December 31, 2025 at 12:03 PM
ljon.bsky.social
It's only the 27th so there's plenty of time to go yet but this has to be a strong contender for at least a category win in the 'You Can Say The Most Bonkers Things Between Christmas And The New Year And The Papers Will Publish Them' awards.
A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Examiner which reads "Billy Kelleher: I would have won the presidency and Ireland missed a real choice"
December 27, 2025 at 10:03 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Keeping a noble Labour tradition alive.
Infamous Tony and Cherie Blair Christmas card photo
December 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Now there's your problem, or part of it at least.

www.rte.ie/news/2025/12...
A screenshot of a paragraph from the linked RTE story which reads "French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X his country "strongly condemns" the visa restrictions, adding that Europe "cannot let the rules governing their digital space be imposed by others upon them"." Said on X is highlighted.
December 24, 2025 at 12:11 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Ah yes.
A screenshot of the results from the 2025 Seanad election in the University of Dublin constituency showing an individual named and quoted in the story receiving 3.33% of first preference votes.
December 23, 2025 at 11:45 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Yeah, this feels pretty appropriate for 2025.
A screenshot from the Apple Music 'Replay' of 2025. My 'Top Song' is 'I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand' by Acetone.
December 21, 2025 at 7:57 AM
ljon.bsky.social
One has to wonder who exactly Fine Gael is trying to appeal to with this talk about securing our children's future they've been churning out over the last few days.

When doing research for this slogan did they come across these words accompanied by any other words, perhaps? We shall never know.
A screenshot of a tweet from the Fine Gael X account which reads "Fine Gael is securing our children's future by allocating €5 million to schools across the country to help keep them smartphone-free. A screenshot of a news items from teh Fine Gael website. The headline reads "Ireland should be EU leaders in children's online safety - Keogh". The first line of the story reads "Securing our children’s future is the primary aim of Fine Gael’s plan for age verification before accessing online sites, a Fine Gael TD has said." A screenshot of a tweet from the Fine Gael X account which reads "Social media companies are exposing our children to harmful content. Fine Gael is securing our children’s future by taking action to stop this, including with age verification." A screenshot of a tweet from the Fine Gael X account which reads "Fine Gael is securing our children’s future by introducing age verification for social media platforms. This will help ensure our children are no longer exposed to harmful content."
December 12, 2025 at 4:41 PM
ljon.bsky.social
It's amazing how much mileage the Irish state gets out of pretending it doesn't know that EU law applies in Ireland, an EU member state. It's *already* the state's job to be aware of legislative changes and to correctly transpose EU legislation.

From assets.gov.ie/static/docum...
A screenshot from the 'Accelerating Infrastructure Report'. It shows some of the proposed actions: Action 12 - Implement Early Warning System re EU Legislative Change on Critical Infrastructure, Action 13 - Advocate for new approach to legislation at EU level on critical infrastructure, Action 14 - Advise on Alternative Methods of Transposing EU Legislation.
December 3, 2025 at 10:28 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Oh. I see. How interesting.
A screenshot of a headline from The New York Times which reads "U.S. to Press Europe and Other Allies on ‘Mass Migration,’ Document Says". The subhead reads "American diplomats were told to raise U.S. concerns about “violent crimes associated with people of a migration background.” A screenshot of a headline from RTE which reads "Minister defends proposed changes to immigration system"
November 27, 2025 at 12:16 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Give this man a Mandy Rice-Davies award.
A screenshot of text from an RTE article which reads "Jason Kwon is the Chief Strategy Officer of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. He visited Ireland on Friday and told RTÉ News that he believes the environmental impact of ChatGPT has been overstated."
November 17, 2025 at 8:18 AM
ljon.bsky.social
This will rise to eleventy billion by Christmas.
November 15, 2025 at 5:50 AM
ljon.bsky.social
'Remote working a 'mistake', claims Irish man who works remotely from Malta for tax reasons'.
A screenshot of an RTE headline which reads "Remote working a 'mistake', claims Denis O'Brien"
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Blueshirts, you say?

"Part of a larger problem of extremism on the platform, the Blueshirts are one example of how the far right leverages popular video game platforms to spread their message and target young people."

globalextremism.org/post/online-...
November 7, 2025 at 7:44 AM
ljon.bsky.social
It feels like this alarming detail is breezed past rather rapidly in order to get back to cheerleading about the amount of STEM graduates the education system is producing.

www.rte.ie/news/technol...
Screenshot of text from the linked story which reads ""More generally, the increasing reliance on AI assistance could have potentially negative impacts on basic cognitive skills, which needs to be nurtured and developed across the education system," the report found."
November 6, 2025 at 4:06 PM
ljon.bsky.social
Sounds like a job for the We All Partied Brians.
A picture of Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan
November 6, 2025 at 2:18 AM
ljon.bsky.social
Free character name if anyone needs one, courtesy of the Tesco website. Might work well if your setting is surreal pastoral.
A screenshot of a product listing from the Tesco website. It reads "Butercupfarmcake Seasonalicedbuns"
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 AM